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I pray that one day, in the not-too-distant future, my children's children will not be discriminated agains based on their country of origin or nationality. I pray that one day, our children's children will look back at the history books and wonder why all humans were never granted the freedom of movement that they enjoy.

The shame of nations

Today, we see that your nationality determines who you are and where you can go. If you carry the right passport, you can travel freely anywhere, irrespective of character or your motives. Nobody questions you. However, if you have the wrong passport, your movement is curtailed. You cannot enter some countries irrespective of your good intentions. If this is not discrimination, then help me understand the definition.

Unfortunately, this is legitimate discrimination that is practiced by all countries around the world - rich and poor, powerful and less powerful, democratic and non-democratic. This legitimate form of discrimination transcends…

The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out that a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
and a migrant as follows:

Migrants, especially economic migrants, choose to move in order to improve the future prospects of themselves and their families. Refugees have to move if they are to save their lives or preserve their freedom. They have no protection from their own state - indeed it is often their own government that is threatening to persecute them. If other countries do not let them in, and do not help them once they are in, then they may be condemning them to death - or to an intolerable life in the shadows, without sustenance and without rights.

There are those who love you so dearly that they desperately want you to succeed, despite the odds. There are also those who hate you so badly that they desperately want you to fail, in spite of the circumstances.

You are often driven by your desire prove the former right, and to prove the latter wrong.

I was looking for some inspirational quote for Mother's Day, and I came across this one that truly nailed it:

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary." ― Dorothy Canfield Fisher
This is so true.

I lost my mother in 2008, over seven years ago. At that time, I just could not get to terms with the fact that she's gone. That I will no longer see her when I visit. That I will not be able to call and speak with her. I always looked forward to those weekend calls, for if I miss them, she will call to find out if everything was OK with me. It took me some time to resist the urge of picking the phone and calling, only to remind myself that she's no longer there. It was those discussions about sweet nothing that meant so much and kept us together.

As we grow older, move on with our lives, and move away from our parents, sometimes to distant places, the continuous presence of our mothers disappears. What continues to guide is the founda…